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Saturday, September 10, 2011

The 2011 Dragon*Con Steampunk Exhibition

Sunday at Dragon*Con was the Steampunk Exhibition. The line to get in was pretty long, but at least there were costumes to photograph along the way:

Steampunk Green Lantern - he dyed and handcrafted all the leather pieces himself.

We all dressed for the occasion, too. Here are my parents again:

Mom and I both had different outfits for the day.

This reminds me: it was raining on Sunday. Hellooo, limp hair. Heh.

Here's a later picture of my outfit:

(You guys have been quite nice about all these pictures of me, by the way. Thanks for that.)

Despite my hair issues I was later spoiled again in the art room: artist J. Corsentino liked my costume so much that he insisted I have this print, claiming I reminded him of it:

As you can see, he was being way too kind.

(You can see more at his website, Time of the Faeries - although I couldn't find this print there.)

Corsentino was also really enamored with my steampunkflux capacitor pin - the one thing I got more compliments on than any other all weekend. People would literally stop in the middle of the street, point, and yell, "THAT IS EFFIN' AWESOME!!" Ha!

Ok, getting back to the Exhibition:

This is one of the costumes by Penny Dreadful Productions that they were advertising all weekend. They just unveiled them at D*C, so there aren't even photos on their website yet that I can see. They had a large section of them in the parade as well, called Remnant:

In addition to those guys, there were foot soldiers:

Scary nurses ala Silent Hill:

And this big guy:

We got to chat with one of the guys from PDP for a while, and it turns out they're hoping to mass produce these costumes to sell. The pieces are made of lightweight foam rubber - even the giant weapons - and the guy told John they'll range from around $1,500 to $3,500. I happen to adore everything PDP makes - they're amazing artisans over there - but the thought of mass-produced steampunk costumes, which are almost by definition extremely personalized and anti-mass-production, made both John and I scratch our heads. You can't deny they look great, though.

Moving on, inside the room we were greeted by some folks from the League of Steam:

Mr. Crackitus Potts himself!

Zed the zombie butler was there, too:

Every 10 or 15 minutes an alarm would sound and he'd try to attack the person in front of him. The others would have to rush over and "subdue" him and get his collar back in place. It was pretty funny. :D

They also had the best way of handing out business cards:

Giant extendable boxing glove ftw!

Like everything else at the con, the Exhibit was crazy crowded. You had to fight to even get close to the tables, so often I'd just stick my camera through a gap between elbows and take pictures of the tables that way:

Most of the time I had no idea what I was looking at, but it all sure looked cool:

Oh! This was really clever:

The guy had me turn the crank to press those metal plates into the paper - a fancy paper punch! Then he wrote their website on the paper glasses to use as a business card. Like I said: clever!

This guy (girl? Not sure) - scared the bejeepers out of a lot of people:

Hehehehe.

This is actually a mask; someone wore it in the parade:

I want one of these:

Isn't it pretty?

There were lots of big guns, of course:

And finally, I found this later in the vendor rooms:

Goooorgeous. I'll take one of these, too, please!

It's by Brute Force Studios, who also make that laser-cut leather you see in the picture. Neat stuff.

There's quite a bit more which I'll be uploading to my Flickr account, if you want to check it out!

You both look awesomely adorable! And I too am in love with the steampunk capacitor! All these photos are getting me inspired for the next Steampunk World's Fair in the spring (sooo far awayyyy) I want shiny twirly things to go with my costume!

Jen!! You are TOO freaking adorable! Seriously! I love your costume, and can't wait for more pics of it! :) You and John are just the cutest steampunk couple. (second to your parents, of course. ;) )

This is just so fun.... I haven't remotely budgeted for an event like this, and have not a crafty bone in my body to make an awesome costume, so I'm not sure when I'd ever actually get to go, but you've sure inspired me to try!

So before I started reading your blog, I had heard of steampunk, but didn't really know what it was. I have since fallen in love - what beautiful things! So clever, and I love the handmade aspect. Thanks for introducing me. :)

The picts of you and John are darling! I love your outfits - you're both very photogenic. Your parents, too!

Is it weird that I LOVE just looking at steampunk stuff?I think it's pretty but that's about it.But I think my enjoyment grows each year when I see your pics.And since I actually sell hardware I think it's time I comb the warehouse for gears and external tooth lockwashers so maybe I can make my own steampunky goodness.

Of course we're going to be nice about the pictures of you. Your costumes are freakin' awesome! I think the one you wore the first day is my favorite of the two. And you (and John ) are adorable, too, so I don't know why anyone would be mean! Sad to see the pics of D*C come to an end. My vicarious living through your pictures has been fun.

Wow Jen, those costumes are super nice! And I must say: you are beautiful! Kind of makes me wish I never saw those pictures, because up untill now I was thinking: "Jen does all these super cool things and she does them amazingly good, but she can't really be this absolutely totally perfect human right? I bet she's a bit ugly." But you're not, so now I need to think of another possible flaw you might have.

(My god, do I sound shallow! It's just that I think I'm totally silly for idolising people, so I compulsively need to humanize them. It does not work, I'm still a crazy fan!)